Here a mouse, there a mouse, everywhere a mouse...

[bcp]

Thousands of mice have infested a town in south-east Australia.

Thousands of mice plague Australian town

This video has been removed for rights reasons.

www.bbc.com

Bruce

 

[zzvyb6]

Wireless or corded ? Middle button function ? Optical or track-ball ?

 

[bcp]

Wireless or corded ? Middle button function ? Optical or track-ball ?

They look wireless. Too low resolution to tell about the other things.

Bruce

 

[Diggin It]

Send them your stray cats.

 

[Wagtail]

Yep. It happens every now & then... as the story says, 'worst in decades'.

 

[ponytug]

Gilgandra is in the middle of a wide open plain. The number of rodents in the area is just mind boggling. I can't imagine the local wheat farms lasting more than a few days.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Hay Dude]

Hungry cats will destroy them

 

[MossRoad]

There's several million feral cats in Australia already. It ain't working.

 

[Hay Dude]

There's several million feral cats in Australia already. It ain't working.

you read that somewhere, right.
Maybe they can import more. I have a couple they can have lol

 

[ponytug]

Longer article over at The Guardian; they mention catching over a hundred in a car, and how bad the smell is from dead mice and loss of hay due to just the total amount of mouse urine and feces on the bales.

Truly a plague.

They are praying for rain.

All the best, Peter

 

[zzvyb6]

I'd pray for cheese. And a 20 ga. And a comfy chair to aim from.

 

[MossRoad]

you read that somewhere, right.
Maybe they can import more. I have a couple they can have lol

Yeah. I've read that several times over the past decade. They don't want feral cats in Australia. I wish they didn't want feral cats in the U.S. either.

 

[cqaigy2]

you read that somewhere, right.
Maybe they can import more. I have a couple they can have lol

Not a bad skill to have. The millions of cats they already have, are wiping out indigenous species, or so i've read.

 

[MossRoad]

From a 1917 Australian newspaper article during another mouse plague...

Making sure you're not a bot!

“The old order of things has been reversed and now the mice not only play when the cats are away, but actually play with the cats,” reported The Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser. “[They] play all over them and around them, chew their little ears, and playfully nibble the tender tips of their tails. And the unfortunate cats have become so scared and disgusted that they now, whenever possible, roost in trees, and have taken to eating grass and noxious weeds.”

 

[MossRoad]

YIKES! That's disgusting. I remember seeing video of a similar mouse plague on 60 Minutes many years ago.

 

[bunyip]

The cats decimate native wildlife, well the smaller ones anyway but there are a lot of small animals, deer damage the forests and the only saving grace is that snakes enjoy mice and rats.

 

[Alien]

Cats will only kill/eat so many then they just sit and watch them and play with them. I only catch one or two mice a night in my traps. Rats are rare now. Keeping them in control before winter. Luckily no grain farms/crops around here to encourage them.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

While the people with the mice are hoping for rains, the other part of the continent has floods from the rains, and spiders fleeing the floods.

‘Horrific’: swarms of spiders flee into homes – and up legs – to escape NSW floods

Arachnids join army of creatures scrambling to reach higher ground as waters rise on Australia’s east coast

www.theguardian.com

As a general rule of thumb, I'm glad I don't live anywhere in Australia.

 

[bunyip]

North is the most extreme but I don't see a lot of differennce apart from that, not as hot as Arizona or cold as Alaska but still get a few rednecks regardless of where you go just to keep it interesting.
Spiders as a rule won't go looking for you and the big ones are generally harmless and keep the bugs under control even if they do come inside when rain is coming, even then they find a dark corner and keep out of your way.
I wouldn't live anywhere else.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

FYI, it wasn't that I feel there's anything bad about Australia, but when it comes to internet clips of wildlife I would not want to meet, Australia is always right up there.

Here in Vermont, sure, we've got a few things to watch out for. The brown recluse spider perhaps, ticks with lyme disease, and so on. But mostly the snakes living in my basement (milk snakes), and the mice they eat, are parts of the ecosystem I can put up with. Maybe Aussies would look strangely at us, for example it isn't as rare an event as you'd think to have a black bear on your porch here trying to get in the house.